PowerBuilder 10.5 Application on Windows XP 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit

Question

I currently have a 32-bit PowerBuilder application that we are trying to port over to a Windows 7 64-bit environment. Realizing the obvious that PowerBuilder 10.5 was built previously before Window7 came out and the big also the obvious fact that this application was built within a Windows XP 32-bit environment.

The 32-bit PowerBuilder application spits out the following error message when deployed on a Windows 7 64-bit machine. Application Terminated. Error: Invalid DataWindow row/column specified at line 44 in function ivvisiblecolumn of object objectwindow

The database profile setup points to an OLEDB and the backend database is MSSQL 2008. Currently the application does run on the Windows7 64-bit environment and seems to be working in an inquiry mode only. Meaning we can read some of the records on the datawindow, but as soon as you try to make a transaction it blows up.

My question is - Is it possible to get a 32-bit app working in a 64-bit environment?

So far the client is asking to come up with possible solutions without the idea of upgrading to PowerBuilder 12.5. Essentially they want to stay at 10.5 but yet get the app working from a 32-bit environment to a 64-bit...apples to oranges if you know what I mean. Further investigation is needed into whether the code will not function in 64bit or dll issues with powerbuilder client runtime in 64bit. They are really trying to stay away from any app rewrite since the application is older than when Christ was a carpenter. The app was originally built in PB 6.5 I think.

So far I have the following ideas but I am new to this: - I understand that Windows 7 comes with a virtual machine IIRC. I think it's called WOW64. Is it possible to create a virtual on a server and have the users run a 32-bit application inside a 64-bit machine? Then create a shortcut of somekind for the user to simply click on?

• We do have a virtual XP machine and a virtual Windows7 64 bit machine for testing. PowerBuilder 10.5 actually installed on Windows 7 and seems to be working fine. However running the application in run mode or debug causes many errors as you can imagine.
• The application has been built in XP and run on Windows 7, but the results yeild the above error message.
• I have not looked yet into the Run under Compatibility mode, but I am told by the team it will not work.

• I have not looked at UAC or ALC User management yet. Could that be something affecting the 64-bit system?

• I know this is app unrelated but...I have seen in some cases 32-bit applications work in a windows 64-bit environment by simply targeting certain DLL files. An example case is Microsoft Flight Simulator X where the 32-bit game would crash in windows 7 64-bit. The solution for that was to simply go get a Vista 64-bit DLL file called uiautomationcore.dll and copy that into the windows environment. The Games also have to be installed on the root of C: in order to work.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how I can approach this problem?

I apologize If I'm vague in my notes here.

UPDATE: Has anyone had any experience with PB 10.5 runtime files on a 64 bit machine? I am wondering if the powerbuilder client runtime is installing its dlls into the correct location of the application C:\XXX or can't find it? Wondering how to approach this.

Answer 1

• Basically nothing should prevent a 10.5 PB app to run on Win7/64. I develop and run several products in PB11.5 (also a 32bit IDE) on a win7/64. And btw, some older PB like 9 still run on Win7, so is likely PB6.5. The problem must be elsewhere, relative to the app design.
• WoW64 (and Wow6432Node in the registry) is not a true VM, it's a bunch of services and system API hooked with fallbacks for 32 bit applications (and legacy applications that do not conform to the novelties introduced since Vista)
• Error: Invalid DataWindow row/column specified at line 44 in function ivvisiblecolumn of object objectwindow sounds typically like an incorrectly handled return value (where a computed row number is getting negative or null before trying to access a property or data at that given invalid row), or it could be relative to the way to get back an autoincrement value from the db after an insert
• beware of the UAC management that could lead to unexpected behavior with legacy application, especially if the application is using a database: the UAC guidelines tells not to install data managed by the application in the Program Files folder that is now Read only (since Vista - that guideline is since XP). Instead you must put that into a ProgramData sub-directory if it is accessible by everyone and into a user local AppData if the data is just for the current user. Win7/Vista can silently conforms to the standard by duplicating the data locally to the user (in the Users\username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore) while still pretending to the application that it is currently accessing it from Program Files...
• you could give a try with Dependency Walker to look for the incorrect dll problems